Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Monthly archive for April 2006
Showing results 11 - 15 of 19 for the month of April, 2006.
11 Apr 2006
It is a point often made by ‘peakniks’ that the energy choices that we will have beyond the peak are all already here, that we don’t have the time to wait for what Richard Heinberg calls ‘The Magic Elixir’. There is no point in waiting around for free energy machines, a hydrogen economy, nuclear powered cars, whatever, life will be simpler and power will come from things we already know work. Yet every day there is a new story about some ‘miracle’ development, or some amazing new ‘breakthrough’, which naturally you never hear anything about again. Rather than actually researching anything useful, scientists are looking with increasing desparation into increasingly unfeasible and ludicrous things to try and convince us that the solution to the energy crisis will come from science and that they are on the case.
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10 Apr 2006
Listening to Friday’s Any Answers programme from Norfolk while I did the evening washing up, I was incensed, nay, incandescent, to hear the reaction of some of the audience to a question about wind turbines. The school that was hosting the programme had apparently applied to put a wind turbine on its roof. When one of the panellists said that they thought that having a wind turbine on a school was good for the environment, and also good for the children to see their school walking its talk, he was booed! Booed!
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7 Apr 2006
A month or so ago I launched a competition where you could win a copy of the wonderful ‘Building with Cob’, the new bible for cob builders everywhere. The idea was that you send me a photo of your favourite old building… the response has been somewhat underwhelming, total entries received thus far, er, 0. So, not one to be put off, and wanting some lucky soul to get their hands on this fabulous book, I am henceforth cancelling that competition and launching a far simpler version, which will only take you about 20 seconds to enter and will run only until next Friday, so come on, as they say, **It Could Be You!**
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6 Apr 2006
The Totnes Sustainability Group is holding a half-day conference in May to launch a study it commissioned which looks at all the renewable energy options for South Devon and for the town of Totnes. It compiles a wealth of information that will be extremely useful to the Totnes Energy Descent Plan. Its findings are similar to those of Paul Mobbs in ‘Energy Beyond Oil’, who says that renewables, at max, could provide 40% of the nation’s energy, the rest needing to come from conservation. The figure the report produces for South Devon is closer to 30%. I will put the report itself on here when it is completed. The conference is by invite only, details below. I am one of the speakers, attempting to give an overview of peak oil and energy descent in 15 minutes!
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6 Apr 2006
I want to draw your attention to a new film release that you really should see. **Loose Change 2nd Edition** was recently released, an updated and much improved version of the film about the events of 911 which originally came out last year. The film explores what critics might call a ‘conspiracy theory’ version of the events of 911, however the film makers take on and challenge this label. *”Conspiracy theory?”* they argue on the back of the DVD, *”it’s not a theory if you can prove it”*, and for my money they do a much better job of ‘proving it’ than the official version does.
Read more»
It is a point often made by ‘peakniks’ that the energy choices that we will have beyond the peak are all already here, that we don’t have the time to wait for what Richard Heinberg calls ‘The Magic Elixir’. There is no point in waiting around for free energy machines, a hydrogen economy, nuclear powered cars, whatever, life will be simpler and power will come from things we already know work. Yet every day there is a new story about some ‘miracle’ development, or some amazing new ‘breakthrough’, which naturally you never hear anything about again. Rather than actually researching anything useful, scientists are looking with increasing desparation into increasingly unfeasible and ludicrous things to try and convince us that the solution to the energy crisis will come from science and that they are on the case.
